Jury orders Samsung to pay $1B to Apple

After 21 hours of deliberation, a nine-person jury has sided with Apple on a majority of its patent infringement claims against Samsung Electronics. The jury also awarded Apple more than $1 billion in damages.

Apple had originally sought $2.75 billion in damages and although it wasn't unanimous on all counts, the verdict was overwhelmingly in Apple's favor.

The jury informed the court at 2:35 p.m. that they had reached a verdict which was read in front of District Judge Lucy H. Ko as soon as the parties were assembled. The speed of the verdict apparently came as a surprise: One of Apple's lawyers walked into the courtroom wearing a polo shirt and jeans, so clearly he wasn't expecting this today.

The trial, which stretched more than three weeks, was characterized by a bewildering and massive trove of evidence which unveiled some of each companies' biggest secrets. By any measure, this was a complex case which presented jurors with page after page of technical minutiae. To reach their decision jurors had to work through a 20-page document that required them to discern which devices from the two companies infringed on which patents, a daunting task considering Apple accused nearly two dozen of Samsung's devices.

For Apple it was prototypes of iPhone and iPad designs that never saw the light of day, as well as highly-detailed financial data that went far beyond what he company typically made public. There were also e-mails between executives, one of which included mention of high interest in a smaller version of the iPad.

For Samsung, it was a series of damning internal documents, many of which showed that the company looked to Apple's devices for cues when designing its software icons and general features. One such internal report contained numerous side-by-side slides where the company put a pre-release version of its initial Galaxy smartphone next to the iPhone, and offered suggestions on how to make it more similar.

Josh Lowensohn joined CNET in 2006 and now covers Apple. Before that, Josh wrote about everything from new Web start-ups, to remote-controlled robots that watch your house. Prior to joining CNET, Josh covered breaking video game news, as well as reviewing game software. His current console favorite is the Xbox 360.